To the "but why" comments, there are some legitimate questions about backends for LLVM - what targets does gcc support that it is easier to write a frontend for a complex language like Rust than add a backend for the desired targets?

I can think of some plausible reasons, like:

- The backends were contributed by people that have no interest in writing another backend in a different compiler framework or are retired/dead/not paid to do it anymore and no one knows the intracies anymore

- Implementing a backend for LLVM is actually harder than writing a new frontend for GCC due to the instability of LLVM IR

But I'm interested what others think. It seems like the industry could burn the candle from both ends, as it were.